The Cherokee/Seminole Removal Role Play
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The Cherokee/Seminole Removal Role Play In her book A Century of Dishonor, important characteristics with much of U.S. published in 1881, Helen Hunt Jackson wrote, foreign policy: economic interests paramount, race “There will come a time in the remote future as a key factor, legality flaunted, the use of violence when, to the student of American history [the to enforce U.S. will, a language of justification Cherokee removal] will seem well-nigh incred- thick with democratic and humanitarian ible.” The events leading up to the infamous Trail platitudes. This trend continues with several topics of Tears, when U.S. soldiers marched Cherokee we will study this year - The U.S. war with Mexico, Indians at bayonet-point almost a thousand miles the Spanish-American War and our colonization of from Georgia to Oklahoma, offer a window into the Philippines. My task is to equip you to search the nature of U.S. expansion—in the early 19th for patterns throughout history, patterns that century, but also throughout this country’s his- continue into our own time. tory. The story of the Cherokees’ uprooting may seem “well-nigh incredible” today, but it shares Pictures/Getty Lallo/TimeLife d E Tobi and Larry Brown retrace the Cherokees’ 1,000-mile Trail of Tears journey. The Browns were part of a 1988 reenactment. The Cherokees were not the only indigenous people affected by the Indian Removal law and the decade of dispossession that followed. The Seminoles, living in Florida, were another group targeted for resettlement. For years, they had lived side by side with people of African ancestry, most of whom were escaped slaves or descendants of escaped slaves. Indeed, the Seminoles and Africans living with each other were not two distinct peoples. Their inclusion in this role play allows you to explore further causes for Indian removal, to see ways in which slavery was an important consideration motivating the U.S. government’s hoped-for final solution to the supposed Indian problem. The role play encourages you to explore these dynamics from the inside. As you portray individuals in some of the groups that shaped these historical episodes, the aim is for you to see not only what happened, but why it happened—and perhaps to wonder whether there were alternatives. Procedure: 1. We will read “Indian Removal Role Play: Problems to Consider,” and view a map to get a sense of how far it is from Georgia and Florida to Oklahoma. 2. Each of you will be part of a group representing one of 5 roles: a. Cherokees b. Andrew Jackson Administration c. Plantation Owners and Farmers d. Missionaries and Northern Reformers* e. Black Seminoles *In previous years of teaching this role play, I did not include a “Missionaries and Northern Reformers” role. The omis- sion of a sympathetic white role left the class with the impression that all white people in the country were united in the quest to forcibly move Indian tribes and nations off their lands. In fact, white people as diverse as the abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison and the Tennessee frontiersman-turned-Congressman, Davy Crockettt, opposed the Indian removal bill. The vote in the U.S. House of Representatives in favor of removal was 102 to 97—an under- whelming majority. Nonetheless, it’s important that you recognize the racial and cultural biases of even those who considered themselves the Indians’ friends and allies. All 5 groups are invited to a hearing to discuss the Indian Removal Bill before Congress. You should consider the resolution, and in your presentations should be sure to respond to three questions on the Role Play instruction sheet. 3. In groups, you should begin by reading your assigned role. As a group, please make a prioritized list of your concerns in 1830. This is especially valuable when it is time to share ideas, argue, and build alliances with other groups. Your group should discuss your ideas on the questions you will be addressing at the Congressional Hearing. Additionally, please label signs so that everyone can see who you represent. You are then to choose half your group to be traveling negotiators. These people will meet with people in the other groups to share ideas, argue, and build alliances. Your roles include different information, so this is an opportunity to teach each other. 4. We will begin the timed teaching/negotiating/alliance-building session. These discussions will last 10- 15 minutes per session. I will circulate to different groups, and occasionally butt in to raise questions or point out contradictions. To ensure maximum participation of students in the class, travelers may not meet with other travelers, but only with seated members of other groups. 5. You will return to your groups to prepare the presentations you will make at the Congressional Hearing. You are to have an outlined set of notes that you will create. 6. We will begin the hearing by allowing one group to make its complete presentation. I will then raise a few questions. After this, members of other groups may question or rebut points made by the presenting group. This process continues until we’ve heard from all the groups. The more cross-group dialogue that occurs, the more interesting and exciting the meeting. 7. Discussion Questions: 1. What reasons did some groups offer for why the Indians should be moved? What do you think were their real motives? 2. Why were the Seminoles such a threat to the southern plantation owners? 3. Do you think that all those Congressmen who voted against Indian removal did so because they cared about the Indians? Can you think of other reasons Congressmen from northern states wouldn’t want the southern states to expand onto Indian Territory? 4. Do you think the missionaries would have been as sympathetic toward the Seminoles as they were toward the Cherokees? Why or why not? 5. Do you see any similarities in the situations faced by the Cherokee and Seminole peoples and situations faced by any other groups in U.S. history? in our society today? in other parts of the world? HW – You will read the excerpt from the following secondary sources: Ronald Takaki’s A Different Mirror (Boston: Little Brown, 1993) provides a good short summary of what happened to the Cherokee along what came to be called the Trail of Tears. ( p . 9 6 - 98) William Loren Katz’s Black Indians: A Hidden Heritage (New York: Atheneum, 1986) is a valuable resource for learning more about how the Seminoles were affected by the events depicted in the role play. (Chapter 4, “The Finest Looking People I Have Ever Seen”) Indian Removal Role Play Problems to Consider The year Is 1830. There is a bill before the Should all Indians living east of the Mississippi United States Congress that would provide funds River be moved, by force if necessary, west of the ($500,000) to move all Indians now living east of Mississippi River to Indian Territory? the Mississippi River to “Indian Territory” (Okla- homa) west of the Mississippi River. The Indians Questions for each group to consider in planning would be given permanent title to this land. The your presentation: money would pay the Indians for any improve- ments made on the land in the East where they’re 1. Do you support the Indian Removal Bill? now living. It would also cover the expenses of Why or why not? their transportation and for a year in their new 2. What questions do you have for members of homes in Indian Territory. the other groups that will be in attendance? The U.S. Congress has decided to hold hearings on this bill and you are invited to give 3. What will you do if Congress passes this bill? testimony and to question other individuals What will you do if Congress does not pass who will give testimony. The main question for this bill? discussion is: Cherokee Your people have lived for centuries new law forbids anyone with any Cherokee blood in the area the whites call “Georgia.” This is from testifying in court, or protesting the plans to your land. At times you’ve had to fight to keep it. move you out of your land. But you didn’t vote You’ve had a hard time with whites. Ever since for this Georgia government, and besides, you they began settling in Georgia they have continued have a treaty with the federal government that to push west, plowing the land, growing cotton says you are citizens of an independent country. and other crops. Long ago, as early as 1785, the When the U.S. government made a treaty with Cherokee Nation won the right to their land by you, that proved you are a nation. a treaty with the United States government. The The Cherokee are one of the five “civilized United States recognized the Cherokee people as tribes.” It was the whites themselves who taught part of an independent country and not subject to you much of this “civilization.” You have well- the laws of the United States. After the U.S. Consti- cultivated farms. By 1826, members of your tution was approved, the U.S. government signed Cherokee nation owned 22,000 cattle, 7,600 another treaty with the Cherokee—in 1791, when horses, 3,000 plows, 2,500 spinning wheels, 10 George Washington was president. Article Seven saw mills and 18 schools. Like southern whites, of the Hopewell treaty said, “The United States some of you also owned black slaves. In 1821, solemnly guaranty to the Cherokee nation all their Sequoya, a brilliant Cherokee Indian, invented lands not hereby ceded.” In other words, the U.S.